October 8, 2020
Lee and I continue to care for the people in Jerusalem, but now from Washington state. I am still the Relief Society President of the Jerusalem Branch and Lee is the District Clerk. Lee has meetings with Pres. Lifferth (who is in Utah) and the Branch Presidents in Israel. I keep in touch through email and WhatsApp with the sisters in Jerusalem and Beersheva. We have participated in District Relief Society meetings, held online, and in other meetings. For those in Israel, it has been hard. The whole country shut down because of Covid-19, and no meetings in person have been held since March, 2020. The faculty and their families stayed in Jerusalem at the Center in hopes that students could come for Summer Term, but that did not happen, so the families left in July for t he United States. Other Americans left also, so for the Relief Society in Jerusalem there is just Heather Howell, who is the one active member and also the Jerusalem District Relief Society President. She ministers to the other sisters (3 of them) in the Jerusalem Branch. Her husband is the Branch President of the Jerusalem Branch, so they have the weight of the whole branch on their shoulders. A new branch was also formed, which now includes women who had been members of the Jerusalem Branch. This new branch, the Jordan River branch, is an online only branch and members are those who live far away from the nearest branch, or who because of their job or transportation cannot get to a branch meeting. This is a great blessing for these members, who wanted to join with us, but could not. While in Jerusalem, I had one sister use WhatsApp and I could use it to display the meetings to her. She lives in East Jerusalem and cannot get in to Jerusalem, so now she is a member of the new branch, and that will be better for her. It is an incredibly challenging time, since no one can meet in person with the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic devastation is real. We are blessed to be able to keep in touch with these dear members through various online formats and I am grateful to know so many faithful women in Israel who are making the best of their circumstances.
